Two bad things about kegging

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Honestly! I don't see how bottling could only take 45-90 minutes, unless you're just throwing sugar into the fermenter, pouring directly out of a spigot into each bottle, then slamming a cap down on each bottle, not to mention the initial cleaning/sanitizing, nor cleaning up afterwards.

2 hours would be a miracle for me.

Thank you! And I had a vinator, and a bottle tree and had my process down. Just no way it could be quicker without skimping on cleaning/sanitizing.
 
Ok. What the hell is wrong with my process?

I just started kegging, only kegged two batches so far. When I was bottling, it took me between 2.5 - 3 hours, depending. Now that I'm kegging, it's taking me about 90-100 minutes. An improvement, but not as dramatic as I was hoping.

When people quote how much time it takes to bottle or keg a batch, are they including setup and cleanup time? Or just the actual act of racking and filling/capping? I just don't get it! I can see getting my kegging time down to 75 minutes once I get more used to it, but I don't really see how it can be much shorter.

Well, for me it takes like 15 min to keg. I already have the kegs clean because i clean them when they kick. So all i need to do is sanitize them with startsan then purge with co2 and rack the beer into it. after that just use co2 to purge more and then its done. The clean up for me is just cleaning the racking cane and tubing.
 
Well, for me it takes like 15 min to keg. I already have the kegs clean because i clean them when they kick. So all i need to do is sanitize them with startsan then purge with co2 and rack the beer into it. after that just use co2 to purge more and then its done. The clean up for me is just cleaning the racking cane and tubing.

What! Lol. If I could keg in 15 minutes, my wife would hang a plaque in my honor. What about sanitizing your racking equipment? Making up the StarSan and PBW mixtures? Cleaning out the carboy or bucket and rinsing?
 
What! Lol. If I could keg in 15 minutes, my wife would hang a plaque in my honor. What about sanitizing your racking equipment? Making up the StarSan and PBW mixtures? Cleaning out the carboy or bucket and rinsing?

To sanitize i just fill a bucket with some water about half way with starsan, drop the racking cane and tubing into it, and run the starsan through it. The keg i put some of the starsan water into it and just shake it up. hook up the co2 and purge the starsan back into the bucket and let the keg fill with co2. Then rack the beer to keg. After, i put the racking cane and tubing back into the bucket and run more sanitizer through it to clean it. then i just put it away to dry on its own.

The carboy gets a quick rinse then i just soak it with PBW and hot water. I'll leave it alone for 24 hours so i don't clean the entire thing right away. But the next day it takes me a couple minutes to finish the cleaning. i just basically have to wipe a couple stuck on spots and rinse.

So like 5 min to sanitize, 5 min to rack, 5 min to clean up.

Since i clean the keg and carboy on different days it reduces my kegging time by a lot.
 
When I tilt a cool wet glass under my tap and pull that lever. I watch that magical liquid flow. It ebbs and swirles against the bottom of my glass, unleashing a cloud of foam as it rises up the walls of the glass cylinder. As the magical foam rises up to the top, the glass tilts and the beautiful head is formed. The very act of taking a so basic food group, barley and wheat along with hops and yeast to make such a perfect liquid. It doesn't get any better than that

Sounds like you write for Mills and Boone
 
Since I started kegging 9 months ago I've lost 4 5-lb CO2 cylinders to gas leaks.

In addition I have lost a gallon of Cherry Cider, a gallon and a half of very delicious (and sticky!) Belgian Dark Strong, and half a gallon of American brown to leaks. Fortunately I have a keezer, so it was all contained.

Furthermore I have been sprayed in the face with beer from faulty poppet valves countless time, and cleaned up the walls and floor due to spraying beer.

Still better than bottling!
 
Kegs are great but the Peter Principle (whatever can go wrong will go wrong) still applies.

That's Murphy's Law. Peter Principle is reaching your level of incompetence.
 
The time difference for me comes in the cleaning, sanitizing, filling and capping 40 bottles vs 1 keg.

If we're talking "active time" I spend maybe 10 minutes filling the keg with cleaning solution, then 3 - 4 minutes pushing some of it with Co2. 3 minutes rinsing the keg and about 2 minutes filling it with 5l of water, pouring in starsan and shaking it.

Now, filling 1 keg vs 38 bottles for a 5 gallon bath, yes it takes comparable time to fill, but you can put your auto siphon in the fermenter, leave it there, go do something else for 5 minutes and you come back to a full keg, add lid, hook up to co2, leave for 3 - 5 days and you're good.
 
I bottle and keg, depending on the beer and what I want to do with it.

Breaking it up in to manageable parts of the process is key, but the one that sucks is cleansing.

Gotta soak, or build a manifiold and pump pbw, or something, but that step is the one that sux deluxe for me. Upon emptying a bottle, rinse thoroughly. Scrub with brush if necessary/possible, if not try to keep the yeast ring wet till you can brush it. Once any gunk is dried it takes a lot more time or effort to remove. So prep work when emptying bottles is key. Then cleansing can be a quick fill/shake with pbw, and a rinse. Only need a couple qts of cleanser when passing from bottle to bottle, quick shake, quick rinse, almost as fast as using a vinator. Done, store upside down until bottling day.
Bottling day, rack to bucket, use vinator for sanitation rinse, use bottling wand for filling, set your work for good flow, I have empties on the tree on my left, filling wand centered in front, caps in bowl on left, full bottles with cap on right, everything in reach and a drip pan on the floor. Do 12 or 24 bottles before crimping caps. Bottling day won't exceed 90 minutes. If you take one bottle, fill it, cap it, crimp cap, put in box, you are not optimizing your process. It saves about 30 minutes to do them in batches. Remember to set a cap on the filled bottle and be careful not to knock it over.

Kegging is quick. Clean kegs when kicked, pbw soak, whatever is necessary, store upside down and clean. I use my Mark's keg/carboy cleaner, it has a pump. Setup, walk away, return to clean keg/carboy. Kegging day - assemble keg, purged (5-10 mins), rack to keg (15 mins), charge with gas, refrigerate (10-15 mins). Clean fermenter (15 mins). I use buckets, so they're easy to reach and quick. About every 3rd batch I give them a good soak with pbw.
 
Typically each batch I keg at least half and bottle the rest. I just don't find bottling as onerous as most people do, and since I brew a lot of high gravity Belgians the beer usually improves with aging. (I know that some can fill a keg and set it in a corner for six months before tapping. It is easier for me to save bottles than a keg).
 
When I tilt a cool wet glass under my tap and pull that lever. I watch that magical liquid flow. It ebbs and swirles against the bottom of my glass, unleashing a cloud of foam as it rises up the walls of the glass cylinder. As the magical foam rises up to the top, the glass tilts and the beautiful head is formed. The very act of taking a so basic food group, barley and wheat along with hops and yeast to make such a perfect liquid. It doesn't get any better than that

You my man, need a girlfriend.

Lol.. just kidding.
 
My keg cleaning/sanitizing method I have had luck with is after Ive kicked a batch, I thoroughly rinse the keg with hot water, then fill it up 1/4 to 1/2 way full with hot water and pbw. Put the lid back on and roll it down the hall and back for a few min. Then drain, rinse, and do the same with star san. I dont drain the star san though, just keep it in the keg until I am ready to use it again.

I feel the longest part was filling each keg up with hot water. Thats why I erred to the method I use now. Kegs always come out clean and havent had any infection issue as of yet
 
Why do these always devolve into a kegging vs bottling discussion? OP didn't mention that at all.
 
Why do these always devolve into a kegging vs bottling discussion? OP didn't mention that at all.

Some people like to bottle beer. I bottle my big beers so that I can age them for long periods of time.

The thread though was meant to be an outlet for those of us who have a sense of humor.

The reason I hate the first beer from a keg is that it's not drinkable.

The reason that I hate the last beer from a keg is that I realize that the keg has kicked. I've often had deep thoughts about how good the beer from the keg was. It's almost like my beer has died man. The time we spent together was way too short. I've missed many of the beers that ended up kicking. I didn't cry or write an obituary for any of them. I'm not insane or anything. Just saying that it's a little sad when a keg kicks. That's all.
 
My LHBS started carrying kegging equipment last year. I went in and gawked at the shiny kegs and fittings. I thought about not having to bottle anymore and I was intrigued. Then I did some quick math to figure out the cost of a decent starter setup. All of a sudden the kegs didn't seem quite so shiny.

But then I said to myself "Self, no more bottling and think of the ease of pulling a pint whenever you want one..."

And then I thought of the ease of pulling a pint whenever I want one. That killed the idea right there. Cost aside I think, for me, a full keg would be a dangerous thing.

If there are 7 or 8 empty bottles on the table in front of you then it might be time to consider going to bed. If there is only a single damp glass in front of you then who the hell knows what's going on?

I had to stop right there and say.... PITCHER! And of course some nice frosties in the freezer. Running out of frosties will do the same thing.
 
And SWMBO is the coolest! She is the one who got me started on this road. About 8 years ago she thought that I needed a hobby. So for Christmas she got me everything I would need to get started including the keg and a couple of dozen bottles. At first I thought it was the dumbest thing, up to that point i had only been exposed to some poor tasting home brew and thought that I was way out of my element. But she also got me several books. ... soon i was on the road and have never looked back. As far as bottle vs. Keg.... keg all the way. I started with a used keg and have never had any problems with it other than a leaky o ring. I was able to fix that before the beer was even cold by monitoring the pressure gauges. I have also never been sprayed or lost any more than a few drips. The added benefit of kegging is that the condition that I am in right now will allow me to have some home brew this winter. If I had to bottle i would be without good beer for another 4-6 months and it has already been 4. :mad:
 
One bad thing about kegging. ... you never know exactly which beer is going to be the last.
 
One bad thing about kegging. ... you never know exactly which beer is going to be the last.


Haha not so check out the raspberry pints v2.0 with flow meters. They have a pretty cool proof of concept out there to manage keg levels and seem to be getting great results from the community. So if an accurate perception of what is left in your keg is desired I'd start researching there. Not affiliated in any way except to have gotten the non flow meter version just to display my digital taplist for friends and family.


Sent from somewhere to someone
 
I think this is a positive personally: with bottles I would count them, hoarding the last few till past their prime. When Kegging, I can get a rough idea, but there's more "freedom" to drink it when it's good.
 
Personally I don't care.... sometimes I have had to go to bed disappointed because there was less beer left in the keg than i thought. The sadness soon turns to happiness because soon I will get to brew another batch. For now I have 3 empty kegs and no ingredients. Hopefully I can change that this week, if i don't they will stay empty till sometime next year :(
 
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